Marsh Community Centre Charitable Company

LMARS expenses policy

Update December 2017

Background

LMARS was set up as a project of MCC by Rebecca Novell. When she went on maternity leave in the autumn of 2016, her role of coordinating the volunteers who had been recruited for the project passed to Lizzy Hare. The number of house volunteers grew, and the project also now runs a three times weekly drop in at the Marsh Community Centre. Initially the expenses incurred by volunteers was largely met by City of Sanctuary, but as from late January 2017 the responsibility for managing the expenses moved to the Marsh Community Centre. The CoS agreed to pay MCC £400 per month, for January, February and March of 2017 and thereafter LMARS accepted the responsibility of raising funds for expenses, for both volunteers and AS/refugees.

I was given the task by the trustees of MCC of drawing up a policy to enable us to carry out this additional work in a transparent, affordable and accountable way. I hope this document meets those requirements. I am grateful to Lizzy Hare for the expenses document she drew up which I have used as a basis for ourpolicy. This policy was agreed by the Trustees at their meeting on 02 02 17 and was subsequently updated in December 2017.

Sally Pidd

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Expenses policy for LMARS.

Expenses which can be claimed for include the following:-

A. General and Office Costs.

1. Stationery –up to a maximum of £20 per month

2. Costs incurred in DBS checking.

B. Allowed volunteer expenses.

1. Fares

Volunteers can claim fares as follows:

For volunteers accompanying asylum seekers to appointments when they are not able to travel alone (for language reasons, or because they have never been on a train etc.) These may be:
Home Office appointments to collect ID cards in Salford
Home Office appointments for Substantive Interview (usually in Liverpool)
First Tier Tribunal (appeal) hearings (usually in Manchester)
Reporting to the Immigration Centre in Liverpool
Biometric enrolment. For this they need to travel to Bolton, Chorley or Penrith.
Home Office appointments for interview re Dublin III regulation (Liverpool)
Appointments with legal representatives. (Apart from one visiting solicitor there are no immigration lawyers in Lancaster; they are usually in Liverpool or Manchester.)

We will pay fares for an accompanying volunteer only when it is the asylum-seeker's first visit to a location. Where the asylum seeker has the confidence to undertake the visit alone provided that they can take a taxi from the train/bus station to their destination, we will pay the taxi fare as a cheaper alternative.

For asylum seekers. Where no travel warrants are issued, we will pay fares for the asylum seekers themselves to attend Home Office appointments. Every effort must be made to secure a travel warrant from the Home Office, but they are not issued routinely except for ID card appointments. There may not be enough notice given to allow time to request and obtain a travel pass, and the consequences of missed appointments may be serious.
No travel costs can be reimbursed without the travel tickets and proof that the appointment took place ( i.e. by producing an official document).

2. Other expenses
Occasionally other expenses may be approved such as prescription charges if there is an urgent medical need.

C. Interpreter Costs

City of Sanctuary has agreed to meet these costs directly.

D. School uniforms

City of Sanctuary has agreed to fund directly occasional reasonable expenditure on school uniforms where it is not possible to source second hand ones or access via the pupil premium scheme.

Practicalities

1. This policy document will be made available to all LMARS volunteers.

2. Claim forms and receipts will be collected and checked against the policy by the LMARS coordinator or nominated deputy.

All claims will be sent to MCC for the attention of either the LMARS coordinator (currently Rebecca Novell ) or her nominated deputy. They will be validated and entered into the accounting system, keeping, and providing there are available funds up to the monthly £400 for routine claims, a cheque will be issued and will need to be signed for by the LMARS representative. We have been advised by our accounts examiner it is not possible to provide cash advances.

For non standard claims, the same procedure will be followed but reimbursement will come from other donations in the LMARS budget .The LMARS coordinatorwill provide monthly reviews of income and expenditure to MCC trustees and they will undertake a quarterly review of the cash flow position.

December22rd2017

Sally Pidd on behalf of the MCCCC trustees.

------The trustees have agreed we run with this policy for the first 3 months of 2017 and then carry out a review with CoS , to see if the £400 will cover the regular running costs of the scheme operating with these guidelines.

I am aware that there may be some expenses claims in the pipe line already which may not be covered by the above. My suggestion is that they will be considered on a case by case basis by MCC representatives, and if approved, can be reimbursed from the additional donations received by MCC, if there is sufficient money available in the LMARS account line.

The trustees are anxious to ensure that our valued volunteers are reimbursed as soon as possible for the expenses they have already incurred, and wish to thank them for their patience whilst this policy has been drawn up and agreed by us.